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A team of South Korean scientists claims they discovered the first room temperature and ambient pressure superconductor that could revolutionize energy policy. Room-temperature semiconductors under normal pressure would not just enable cheap advanced computing but it would also enable the unlimited transmission of energy without any losses.
The policy and business implications of this are massive. Fields of solar panels in the Sahara could power entire continents, transmission problems made trivial, and climate change rendered far easier to combat.
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In February 2021, the Lone Star State’s standalone energy grid buckled under the pressure of unprecedented blizzards. The deregulated Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) proved unequal to distributing energy under extreme pressure, resulting in widespread blackouts and wholesale electricity prices going from $25 per megawatt-hour (MWh) to $9,000 per MWh. In June 2023, the Texas Supreme Court revived memories of the storm and courted controversy when it overturned previous rulings and ruled that ERCOT was entitled to the sovereign immunity enjoyed by government actors and thus could not be sued for damages.
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Carl Sagan once said, “The nuclear arms race is like two sworn enemies standing waist-deep in gasoline, one with three matches, the other with five.” The near-universal recognition of the futility of an all-out nuclear war led to widespread cuts in nuclear armaments since Gorbachev’s perestroika and the Soviet collapse in 1991. Even anti-communist hawks like former President Ronald Reagan pragmatically cut nuclear arms. The US and the USSR cut strategic arsenals from over 30,000 warheads each to approximately 1550 by 2011.
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Putin’s chef and international villain par excellence, Yevgeny Prigozhin’s half-baked coup against Russia’s Vladimir Putin highlighted just how toxic Russia has become as a global business partner. While Prigozhin ostensibly failed and his power base is being purged, his failed coup revealed the fragility of the Russian state.
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Amongst the many common facts about Iceland (Björk, Chess in Reykjavik, and Viking Sagas), many know the island’s nickname, “The Land of Fire and Ice.” Beautiful landscapes draw tourists to volcanos and geysers, contributing to an internationally renowned clean energy model that derives 99% of power from clean energy through a combination of geothermal and hydropower sources. The geothermal element of this framework is vital for the model’s success and profitability. The conventional wisdom once posited that Iceland’s energy model was unique and could not be widely exported and replicated. Now, thanks to a series of scientific innovations, Iceland may end up as a model for energy policy in many countries and regions worldwide.
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Artificial Intelligence (AI) is revolutionizing the energy industry, driving digitalization and predictive capabilities. While boosting efficiency, it also exposes vulnerabilities that require careful management. Cyberattacks, which will increasingly leverage AI, experienced a significant surge of 2000% between 2018 and 2019, but the frequency has since stabilized.
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The environmental costs of extracting lithium present another barrier to local lithium production which may exacerbate tensions. The mining of lithium, like other minerals, will pollute the surrounding areas, potentially contaminating the groundwater and exposing local populations to toxic chemicals. The fact that Jammu and Kashmir are the origin points for Pakistan’s primary river, the Indus River, means that Indian mining may contaminate the literal lifeline of its nuclear-armed rival, exacerbating conflict.
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While the most cited downside of the green energy transition is its financial and technological costs, it is crucial to remember that green energy also bears environmental costs. These costs are far more localized and immediate than the dispersed and global benefits they bring. In a purely philosophical and utilitarian consideration, green energy is an overwhelming net positive. Nevertheless, neither should this net positive be used to dismiss the legitimate concerns of often marginalized locals. If companies and policymakers do not account for this localized backlash, local environmental activists may ironically impede the green energy transition through political action fueled by justified skepticism.
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The precise tracking of this massive carbon release helped inform authorities dealing with particulate pollution and helped firefighters combat the inferno with precise measures of carbon releases. Such precise measurement of carbon is the result of an unparalleled wave of innovation in precise carbon footprint measurement originating from environmental monitoring. This technology has survived its first trial by fire and is set to change environmental legislation.
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In contrast to the Western publicly and privately held and disparate investment companies, China’s SWF demonstrates a remarkable degree of policy consistency and wields power to secure long-term power purchase agreements with global energy suppliers—a capability lacking in most Western countries, including the United States. This helped China secure long-term deals for uranium supplies for its growing nuclear power industry, traditional hydrocarbons, foreign hydropower, renewables, and more in every corner of the globe.
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Technological innovations and advanced reactor designs that ensure enhanced safety, efficiency, and versatility are central to nuclear energy’s future. Breakthrough technologies, including advanced fuel cycles, thorium-based reactors, and small- and medium-modular reactors (SMRs), are gaining momentum and investment due to their cost-effectiveness, reduced waste generation, and flexible deployment.
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Moscow’s dominant position in the nuclear supply chain grants Russia influence over the nuclear renaissance in the West, vital for the transition to low-carbon energy generation and helps fund its war machine in Ukraine. To redress these challenges, last month the United States, France, Japan, Canada, and the United Kingdom formed the Nuclear Fuel Alliance (NFA) to develop a shared supply chain for nuclear fuel. It is 23 years overdue, but better late than never.
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In the year after Russia’s 2022 reinvasion of Ukraine, freight volume more than doubled on the Middle Corridor, a transportation network connecting Asia with Europe via rail, boat and highway. In March, Secretary of State Antony Blinken unveiled a new U.S. approach to Central Asia that stressed the facilitation of the Middle Corridor, which bypasses Russia. This route removes Russia’s ability to extort its neighbors by leveraging its transit infrastructure while expanding an independent economic artery to the states of Central Asia and further to China.
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While newcomers abound, only a few are capable of being truly #transformative. These small companies are already producing technologies that could revolutionize #renewable#energy and induce fundamental transformations in international #geopolitics and #geoeconomics.
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Dr. Ariel Cohen participated in a panel discussion organized by the New Lines Institute and the International Tax and Investment Center on the strategic implications of Kazakhstan’s political and economic reforms and what Washington needs to learn from Kazakhstan’s pro-reform agenda to increase engagement with the country and other Central Asian states.
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The United States of America has been borrowing more money than it has been earning for decades. This has led to concerns about the country's ability to repay its debts and the possibility of default. In the case of the United States, default would have serious economic consequences both domestically and internationally.
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The nationalization of industry isn’t the only thing Boric promised. According to Boric’s plan, the new, state-owned company is more than simply the long arm of the government collecting profit from a natural resource. It bets on an emerging technology called the Direct Lithium Extraction process (DLE). While DLE performed well in controlled environments, it is still unclear whether commercial use will succeed.
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Interstate relations are normally governed by self-interest and restraint but the ongoing war in Ukraine, when coupled with Russia’s escalatory bent, have rendered predictions about a return of political and energy stability precarious, if not impossible.
The Cipher Brief recently spoke with Ariel Cohen, director of the Energy Growth and Security Program at the International Tax and Investment Center, about the spillover of the war into a global energy crisis and what that means for 2023, when Cohen says we may experience “the toughest circumstance in Europe probably since World War II.”
Read more here.
While Putin may no longer see the utility in showing unity with Russia’s business elite, going from “unshakable unity” in March 2022 to imploring “patriotism over profit” in March 2023, this does not mean they are unimportant. After being banned from traveling to most Western nations, these oligarchs lost 97 billion dollars and counting. Sanctions deeply hurt the Russian economy and even resulted in some non-energy oligarchs risking their lives publicly calling for peace.
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The West must understand the groundswell of anti-Russian sentiment that is sweeping Central Asia while understanding the structural constraints facing these governments. An Atlantic Council event “How can Kazakhstan and Central Asia power and feed the world?”, for a forthcoming report by Margarita Assenova, Ariel Cohen, and Wesley Alexander Hill elucidates many of these problems and solutions.
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Power production will remain CO2 positive no matter how many wind turbines or solar panels we install until fusion is cracked. Long-term storage methods are required to fill energy baseload gaps in renewable generation, creating solutions for key technological and economic challenges surrounding the renewable energy transition.
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On its one-year anniversary of invading Ukraine, Russian gas sales were halved compared to before the war. Russia hoped that Xi Jinping’s visit to Moscow would allow for some relief. Xi did deliver some flowery language, stating “Right now there are changes – the likes of which we haven't seen for 100 years – and we are the ones driving these changes together” when describing relations with Russia. Xi also emphasized the importance of energy in an earlier open letter, writing that “China is ready to work with Russia to forge closer partnership in energy cooperation.”
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The OPEC+ cartel of oil-producing nations led by Saudi Arabia and Russia and chaired by Alexander Novak, Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Energy, is going to remove nearly 1 percent of total global oil production from the market in an apparent effort to increase prices. Despite earlier signals that OPEC+ would make no further reductions to oil production this year, the recent announcement was framed as a “precautionary measure” to ensure stability in the energy market. With oil prices surging 6.3% on Monday, to $85 a barrel for Brent, the Federal Reserve and other central bankers across the globe trying to get inflation under control, have been thrown a curveball.
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The Green icon Greta Thunberg seems to be taking a pro-nuclear stance. The Swedish climate activist once decried nuclear energy as being “extremely dangerous, expensive, and time-consuming”. Her views seem to have changed in tandem with recent trends in public opinion as she recently argued that Germany shutting down its nuclear plants was a ‘mistake’. Greta, alongside other climate activists, emphasized that the alternative to nuclear would be coal, a most polluting energy source.
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The shift of technologies from the cutting edge to the mundane defines technological revolutions. We are amid such a revolution. As Electric Vehicle (EV) technology matures, electric cars are becoming cheaper and their customer base in advanced post-industrial economies is. continuously expanding. That expansion is also happening internationally, with the Global South joining the race for cheap EVs. This market growth is not just the fulfillment of the technological potential of EVs, but a great environmental gain as well.
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